Finger ring with deformed metal joint



May 5, 1959 J. L. HUDSON FINGER RING WITH DEFORMED METAL JOINT Filed May 31, 1957 INVENTOR. JOHN L. Huosou ATTORNEYS.

FINGER RING WITH DEFORMED METAL romr John L. Hudson, Detroit, Mich.,assignor to David I. Babitch, Detroit, Mich.

Application May 31, ,1957, Serial No. 663,575

' 1 Claim.- c1. its-15.7 1

This invention relates to rings worn on fingers as articles of jewelry or the like, and has to do with a construction which facilitates the merchandising of rings particularly with reference to sizes, types and sizes of settings, and the like. This application is a continuationin-part of my application Serial No. 585,500 filed May 17, 1956 now abandoned.

In the merchandising of rings, particularly engagement rings and wedding rings, much ditficulty is encountered in providing a customer with a ring of the proper size which satisfies his taste and which meets his cost requirements. A retail jeweler must carry a relatively large stock of rings to display settings of various designs, sizes and costs, and various styles of shanks, and the number of rings which he must stock is multiplied by the necessity of carrying rings of several sizes to fit individual fingers. Consequently, a retail jeweler must tie up a relatively large amount of capital in his stock and in addition must pay substantial annual personal property taxes on his inventory in most localities.

Even though the retail jeweler carries a large expensive stock of rings, in the great majority of cases no ring which he has on hand exactly meets the size, taste and cost requirements of the customer. For example, the ring size must be changed, or the customer wants a larger or smaller principal gem mounted in a particular setting, or he wants a particular stone transferred to a desired head. To obtain these modifications, the retailer must send the ring to a manufacturing jeweler. This results in additional cost which is passed on to the purchaser and which necessitates delay in delivering a ring. This is objectionable from the retailers standpoint becauseit may result in the loss of a sale. Moreover, this arrangement is generally unsatisfactory to the manufacturing jeweler because the modification work is non-productive and relatively unprofitable.

This invention is concerned with a ring construction where the setting and the shank may be quickly, easily and permanently assembled together by the retail jeweler himself to facilitate the prompt completion of a transaction, satisfying the customer as to all requirements as to type, cost, design and size or the like, without the expense and delay of sending the ring or ring parts to a manufacturing jeweler to complete the single job to meet all such requirements. The term finger ring is used herein in a broad sense to cover all rings whether they be rings with an expensive gem, an engagement ring, a wedding ring having a gem mounting, or an ordinary lower cost ring, notwithstanding the fact that sometimes, in the trade, the term engagement ring and the term finger ring are employed to indicate specifically diflferent forms or types of rings.

The invention is disclosed in the accompanying drawings and following description:

Fig. 1 is an elevational view of a ring shank constructed in accordance with the invention.

Fig. 2 is a top plan view thereof.

Fig. 3 is an elevational view pf one ,face of the shank.

Fig. 4 is a cross sectional view of a setting.

Fig. 5 is an elevational view of the setting showing the side thereof to be abutted by an end of the shank.

Fig. 6 is a view of the setting with a stone or gem applied.

Fig. 7 is a view indicating how the setting and shank are secured together.

Fig. 8 is a view similar to Fig. 7 illustrating a modified arrangement.

Fig. 9 is a view of a completed engagement ring.

Fig. 10 is a view illustrating the invention applied to a Wedding ring.

Fig. 11 is a view indicating an ordinary form of finger ring to which the invention may be applied.

Fig. 12 is a face view of a tool for securing the shank and setting together.

The body of the ring, which is ordinarily termed the shank, is illustrated in Fig. 1 and it hasa body portion 1 for encircling the major portion of the finger. The shank has generally facing end walls 2 with a projection 3 extending therefrom. The face of the walls 2 are preferably slightly concaved as shown in Fig. 2 for purposes which will presently appear. The projections are preferably of hollow form. The shank may take various forms and may have shoulders 5 adapted for receiving small stone or other ornamentation. Just inwardly from i the end walls 2 the shank is of hollow form and is provided with an opening 7 preferably on the underside. It will be observered that the hollow projection 3, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, is of rectangular form. This is an advantageous form although it may have any other suitable form preferably non-circular or polygonal.

The head for the gem or stone is generally indicated at 10. As indicated in Figs. 4 and 5 it has a hollow body with prongs 11 for engaging the stone. The setting has two opposite and angularly disposed walls 12 each provided with an opening 13. The walls defining the opening preferably have planar outer surfaces and are preferably angular, as indicated, so that the walls diverge from each other in an outward direction. The underside of the setting is provided with an opening 14. The stone or gem is illustrated at 16 and is carried by the head as by means of fashioning the prongs 11 partially thereover as shown in Fig. 6. The combined structure of the body of the head 10 and the stone 16 may be considered as the mounted setting.

The shank and the ring are connected together in a manner as illustrated in Fig. 7. The mounted setting is placed between the ends of the shank with the hollow projections 3 passing through the apertures 13. The metal at the free end of the projections 3 is expanded or riveted or spread so as to overlie a part of the wall 12 of the setting on the inside thereof. This may be accomplished by a tool or tools as indicated in Fig. 7. One tool element 20 is passed through the opening 7 and it has an anvil portion 21 for engaging the back side of the end wall 2 of the shank. The element 20 is provided with a recess or notch 22 so that the anvil portion may strongly engage the back side of the wall 2. The other element of the tool or tools is indicated at 24 and it has a head 25 which is passed through the opening 14 in the setting.

The head 25 has a spreading lug 26 with surfaces which converge toward each other in a direction toward the end of the lug. The inclined surfaces 26 fit into the hollow projection. Needless to say, the ensmalled end of the spreading part 26 of the tool will be of such a size that its end may penetrate slight into the open projection. The pressure is applied with the two tool elements being urged toward each other and the metal at the end of the hollow projection is fashioned outwardly as indicated in Fig. 7, and thus the one end of the shank 3 and the mounted setting are securely riveted together. With one end of the shank thus connected to the setting the position of the tool or tools is reversed and in like manner the other end of the shank is secured to the opposite .wall of-the setting.

The reason for preferring that the projections 3 be acircular or polygonal in cross sectional shape is that when the projection passes through an aperture 13 of corresponding shape the mounted setting is held against any rocking motion. Of course, the apertures 13 should nicely fit the pr-ojections. A somewhat rectangular rape has been found to be advantageous and it has also been found advantageous for the projection to extend across the major .portion of the width of wall 2. However, projections having circular portions may be employed in which event, however, some key or notch arrangement should preferably be provided to prevent rocking action. The exteriorsurfaces of the end walls il, as stated above, are preferably slightly concaved to the end that when drawn tightly against the flat face of the .settinga good edge to edge tight engagement is effected with-no visible gap or clearance of any kind.

The angularity of the faces 2 and the angularity of the Walls 12 of the head may vary with variation of the circumferential dimension in the head. For example, if the head is wider circumferentially than shown in the drawings, the faces 2 may be at a wider angle relative to each other as also may be the walls 12 of the head. However, heads having the same circumferential extent and the same relative angulari-ty of faces 2 may have numerous types and sizes of gem mountings so-that different kinds of rings can be made by assembling the heads selectively on identical shanks The structure may be reversed as shown in Fig. 8. Here the head a is provided with the projection .m for passing into an aperture in the wall 2a of the shank 1a. With this construction, the end of the hollow projection is fashioned outwardly to overlie a part on the wall 2a of the shank.

The invention is equally applicable to wedding rings as illustrated in Fig. 10 wherein a shank i has a mounted setting or section 27 secured thereto. Section 27 base bottom opening 28 for receiving a tool element 24 as shown and may have one or more gems 29 mounted thereon. The shank of this ring may be identical to shank 1 of the engagement ring shown in Fig. 9 so that a matched set of rings can be furnished by securing selected mounted engagement ring settings and wedding ring settings on identical shanks.

The invention is not limited to rings with :rare gems or stones. The invention, however, maybe employed with the type of ring, sometimes in the trade, called finger rings, such as shown in Fig. 11. Here the shank 30 has a relatively larger setting 31. This setting may contain a stone or an emblem of an organization or the like.

A merchandiser can, by employing this invention, supply the many and perhaps fancy desires of purchasers by carrying only a relatively small, inexpensive stock and without the necessity of a delay of a day or two or more while the desired ring parts or the ring itself is delivered to a manufacturing jeweler for sizing or for changing the stone or the shank. For example, and this is given only as an example, a retail jeweler can adequately satisfy all of the probable requirements of customers having relatively divergent tastes and income by'carrying-a stock of forty-eight shanks, ie-twelve 'dif fe're'nt fshank styles each in four finger sizes, twenty mounted settings for engagement rings and twelve mounted settings or sections for wedding rings. This stock provides the retail jeweler with the equivalentof 240 different engagement rings each in four different sizes and 144 wedding rings, each in four different sizes.

Such a stock costs the retail jeweler about $4,000 to $4,500. Inrural areas, where'the customers taste and cost requirements are less divergent, a stock about one half this size or smaller may be required. A purchaser selects the particular size, type or price of mounted setting for an engagement ring, a wedding ring, or both, selects the correct style and size of shank, and in a matter of a few minutes the selected parts are assembled together and the transaction immediately completed.

The invention thus enables an average size retail jeweler to satisfy the desires of nearlyany customer and enables the retailer to deliver rings immediately upon purchase even though he carries only a relatively small stock of selected shanks and mounted settings containing diamonds of different styles, sizes and cost. The invention also largely frees the manufacturing jeweler of the burden of performing generally unprofitable and timeconsuming modifications of work on new rings. Moreover, the invention eliminates the retail jewelers problem of having odd rings on hand as a-result of a customer buying only ottering froma matchedset ofrings. Heretofore, these oddrings have been next to worthless to a retail jewelerbecause in most cases he could not sell them as rings but could only recover part of their cost by selling the metal and stones as such to a refinery or to a manufacturing jeweler.

It has been found that this construction holds the setting and the shank together strongly and that there is no danger of the setting comingloose and perhaps lost; that is, no more danger than there is with any other ring structure heretofore used. The structure has been subjected to test as by deliberately stepping on it and otherwise mistreating the structure and the setting and shank in all instances have proven to be connected together so strongly that other parts of thering, such as the shank itself, and the body of the setting, are badly damaged before the joint between the setting and the shank is loosened.

I claim:

A finger ring structure comprising, a shank for encircling a portion of a finger, the ends of the shank being spaced apart and each being defined by the front face of a wall, each wall having a rear face, the shank having a concavity to the rear of each .wall which is defined in part by said rear face of said wall, each con cavity having side walls and having a closed top, said shank having bottom openings leading to the interior of said concavities, each bottom opening being closely adjacent said rear face of the first mentioned wall that atool can be inserted intosaid concavity adjacent said rear face,.a mounted setting which includes a head and agem or thelike mounted thereomsaid head h. ..g side walls and having a hollow interior defined by interior faces of said side walls, said side walls having oppositely disposed exterior face portions closely abutting said front faces of the first mentioned shank walls in interfacial. relationship therewith, thetop of said hollow interior being closed by said gem or the like, said mounted setting having a bottom opening leading to the interior thereof, the bottom opening of said mounted setting being closelyadjacent the portions of said interior faces substantially opposite said exterior face portions of said side walls, and said interior face portions being freely accessible through said-bottom opening so that a tool can be inserted the'rethrough to locations adjacent said interior face portions,-the respective interfacing walls of the mounted setting-and shank having, one, an acircular opening therethrough and the other, an pcircular projectiqn passing in'mating relation through said opening, whereby to'se'cure said mounted setting against rocking movement relative to said shank, said projection having an end portion of hollow form, said end portion being fashioned outwardly in directions both radial and of said finger ring structure, said outwardly fashioned end portion facing and tightly engaging the surface of said .wall haying 1 said opening in substantially parallel 5 6 relationship to said wall surface and around substantially 1,171,030 Finberg Feb. 8, 1916 the entire periphery of said opening. 1,445,564 Stafford Feb. 13, 1923 2,035,244 Pejchar Mar. 24, 1936 References Cited in the file of this patent 2,132,905 Maym'er Oct 11, 1 UNITED STATES A NT 5 2,248,802 Better July 8, 1941 442,757 Schlosstein Dec. 16, 1890 467,929 Fink Feb. 2, 1892 FOREIGN PATENTS 939,864 Sadler Nov. 9, 1909 565,891 France Nov. 13, 1923 

